Does anybody know what a commuter pilot was earning, on average, in the mid-90s? What about before then?

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has an online CPI (Consumer Price Index) calculator which allows you to determine the purchasing power of the dollar in previous years compared to the current dollar. Click Here.

You may note that a pilot making $30,000 in 1990 had the equivalent purchase power of a pilot making $56,606.58 in 2013.

A pilot making $15,000 (a number that one of the Republic FOs on this forum claimed his first year salary to be) in 1990 had the equivalent purchase power of a pilot making $26,803.29 in 2013.

In short, you regional pilots are earning obscenely low salaries. While other professions have adjusted with inflation throughout the decades, pilot salaries have arguably (pending accurate salary information as requested above) maintained the same "face value" while losing real value.

That same 2013 pilot making $15,000 would have made only $8,394.49 in 1990.

Something worth remembering at your next salary negotiation.